Back rent, annual rent, and establishment of a Sioux Nation National Council among the innovative solutions

MULEY HILL LODGE NEAR STURGIS – The annual West River History Conference (WRHC) set a record attendance for the thirty-third conference held in Deadwood in early October.

Attorney Mario Gonzalez (Oglala Lakota) was among the more than forty professional and amateur historian presenters at the three-day conference. The presentation “Why the Black Hills Are Not for Sale!” was held at the Muley Lodge, a conference hosting location within a mile from Deadwood’s Main Street.

Muley Hill Lodge is a fully restored dairy barn which serves as an even location hosting weddings, private events, and conferences. Originally built in 1911, the lodge sits on 70-acres in Boulder Canyon, just a mile from Deadwood’s Main Street.

It was a warmer than usual fall day in the Black Hills, with a moderate breeze that provided some relief from the warm temperatures. The rolling hills, ponds, and woodlands were abuzz with the many relatives – the wildlife and natural systems – who were preparing for winter while their human relatives discussed the land’s past and it’s future. The serenity of the ranch was juxtaposed against America’s violent dispossession of Indigenous people’s with the final military conflict culminating with the Wounded Knee Massacre.

It was standing room only at the historic barn as Gonzalez gave a brisk overview of U.S. federal Indian policy specific to the region with maps, handouts, as well as several pages of innovative solutions.

Gonzalez first gave a brief outline of various significant actions taken by Congress: the Teton Sioux and Yankton Sioux signed the Treaty of September 17, 1851 also known as the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851, in 1863 an amendment to the Court of Claims’ specifically barred Native Americans from using the court to bring monetary claims against the U.S. government, the Treaty of 1868, and the passage by Congress in 1877 of the Black Hills Act confiscating the Black Hills portion of the 1868 Sioux Treaty reservation. He adeptly covered the first Black Hills Claim, challenges which took place in the first half of the last century, followed by the second Black Hills Claim and third Black Hills Claims, the independent class action lawsuit filed by the Oglala Sioux Tribe, the Bradley Bill, and the Martinez Bill.

Gonzalez explained, contrary to the historical narrative, that the Oceti Sakowin did not give up any land in the 1868 treaty. He said the Sioux agreed to sign to find peace. “The Sioux did not give any land in that treaty, and the federal government had admitted that the Sioux had never intended to cede any land.” He said many of the commissioners were Civil War generals who committed fraud against the Sioux Nation. “They knew what they were doing. We still have claims on this.”

Gonzalez said efforts are ongoing to resolve the matter. He said first there is Docket 148-78, which refers to the 1979 court case in which it was ruled that the government had seized the Black Hills illegally and compensated the Sioux Nation for the seizure. “We don’t want to be part of it,” said Gonzalez reiterating the long-standing position that the Oceti Sakowin did not cede the Black Hills and will not take a financial payment for them.

He said requests for consultation with the Biden administration were ignored and the Trump administration has not responded to their requests.

Gonzalez posits that there must be innovative solutions to resolving the Sioux land claims without having to include language that would constitute a “cession” of Sioux treaty lands contrary to Article 12 of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty.

Among the solutions would be for the Sioux Tribe to establish by charter a Sioux Nation National Council to oversee the rights recognized within the Sioux Nation national boundaries. There would be no running of candidates for chair. Instead, all Sioux tribes would have one vote at national council meetings, and the chair would be rotated from meeting to meeting.

Congress would authorize the conveyance of an ownership interest in all federal lands in the Black Hills, a 7.3 million acre area, both surface and subsurface estates. Tribes would demand ownership interest, with some exceptions like Ellsworth Airforce Base. It would be agreed that land would be returned to all Sioux tribes.

Lands could be managed through a joint management agreement between the federal government and the Sioux tribes.

The monetary award for Docket 74-B and Docket 74 should be considered as back rent for the Black Hills and placed in a permanent fund for present and future generations of the Sioux tribes, who have a sacred obligation to look out for the next Seven Generations.

The U.S would pay an equivalent future annual rental for non-federal land held by private parties and in return the Sioux tribes would agree not to sue the U.S. or any of its citizens.

Collaborative talks are needed to craft legislation that could be presented to Congress for passage.

Other innovative solutions that could be accomplished through executive order and made permanent by Congress include recognizing the Sioux tribes as having certain rights within the national boundaries which would include, jointly managing federal lands and resources, rights already recognized under the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the right to consultation on all federal undertakings, for instance the Keystone Pipeline, hunting and fishing rights on all federal lands within the national boundaries, gathering rights within the national boundaries, rights to dead trees for firewood on reservations and other rights.

The 1851 Treaty boundaries (and the aboriginal title boundaries east of the Missouri River) of the Sioux Nation would be recognized. Federal highways would feature signs designating travelers that they are entering and leaving the Sioux Nation. Some states like Oklahoma already do that.

Existing reservations and tribal governments would not change and would exist within those recognized Sioux Nation boundaries.

The West River History Conference has been working since 1993 to preserve the historic record of western South Dakota and the Northern Plains.

(Contact Marnie Cook at cookm8715@gmail.com)

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